2023 Real Estate Observations (Boston, Somerville, Wellesley: small, friend, complete)

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

I also pointed out a few weeks back that "affordable SFH" are coming to Duxbury soon too. There will be a sprinkling of ~$500K homes in new developments for certain income levels. I suppose adjusted for inflation these ~$500K homes are what that $390K one was back in 2019. Certainly not the norm, but there are some in the mix.

Are they going to places like Weston, Wellesley and hingham also?

[newenglandgal123]

Speaking of W and 'up and coming close to W standard towns' Didn't this just happen in neighboring Wellesley a month ago....now people in 'posh' Needham are following suit and not locking their car doors https://www.necn.com/news/local/mult...edham/3006465/

[msRB311]

Apparently marshfield and Hanover are hot today

https://www.boston25news.com/news/lo...outputType=amp

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Are they going to places like Weston, Wellesley and hingham also?

Absolutely they are......https://www.hingham-ma.gov/955/Curre...using-Projects

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by msRB311

OMG really? look at this incident in Brookline:

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local...dents/2671307/

https://www.wcvb.com/article/brookli...setts/39656307

Also at Curry college in Milton:

https://www.wgbh.org/news/national-n...ss-the-country

More:

https://www.wcvb.com/article/antisem...eport/43972744

You will find hateful people in any town. On that note Brookline would be way too liberal for me. That's fine to not like Duxbury but don't make it out to be some racist place. It isn't.

Yes! Sadly we had a president in the white house for four years that gave the people in this country the idea that it was OK to be mean and hateful to others. So incidents like these have become a lot more common. The whole country is in a bad place right now. Everyone is just so polarized and angry at everyone else.

This being said, in my personal opinion, Duxbury has had a number of them in the last few years and when you account for the difference in population size that makes it all the more meaningful to me. Not saying everyone in Duxbury is a Neo-Nazi or a member of the KKK. Just saying the town has had more than it's fair share of negative press in recent years and that would affect my personal decision about whether or not I would want to live there. Again, I'm just sharing one man's opinion.

Originally Posted by massnative71

This does NOT mean that one town is better than another town or that there aren't people who would rather live in Duxbury than Brookline, but we were initially discussing the "classes" of towns. Prices are the result of high demand, in which Brookline and Wellesley are clearly the "elite" towns in that category.

Well put and I could agree more with you. High prices equate to high demand for that product and high demand equates to desirability. Desirability though is about how many people want something. Something may be great for you and awful for the majority of people. This doesn't make what you have bad just less desirable.

Originally Posted by massnative71

Biggest standout to me looking at those higher ranking towns was Natick at $900K (tied with Milton). I mean NATICK??? wtf...

What's so bad about Natick? Everyone always thinks of the Natick Mall and RT9 when they think of Natick but there's a lot more to the town than just a short stretch of RT9. I'd be totally fine to live there.

Originally Posted by massnative71

Growing up, it was known as just a regular upper-middle-class town but times have certainly changed.

Same! I remember Needham from growing up. It was a totally different place then. Lots of modest houses but a lot of them have been torn down now and replaced by new, significantly larger homes.

Originally Posted by msRB311

Needham certainly isn't perfect either now that you got me going ;

https://www.wcvb.com/amp/article/pri...edham/30261213

Again, things like this have become more common across our country in recent years. The difference here is this was a single incident by a stupid kid most likely. He probably learned that stupidity at home from a hateful parent. Also, again, my take is that Duxbury has had a lot more negative press (especially adjusted for population size) in recent years than other towns. For all I know, Duxbury is a Utopia. However, the negative press turns me off of the idea of living there. Perception is reality.

Originally Posted by msRB311

Are they going to places like Weston, Wellesley and hingham also?

Yup. All of those towns are seeing a lot of proposals for building housing projects with affordable units. Tons of NIMBY-ism as one might imagine holding up those projects but the proposals keep coming anyway.

People love to whine and cry every time a new development is proposed . . . there will be so much traffic!!! It will forever alter the character of the town!!!! We don't have the infrastructure to handle the additional population!!!!

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

Speaking of W and 'up and coming close to W standard towns' Didn't this just happen in neighboring Wellesley a month ago....now people in 'posh' Needham are following suit and not locking their car doors https://www.necn.com/news/local/mult...edham/3006465/

I'd bet dimes to donuts that the victims of these crimes are in fact long time Needham residents with more modest incomes and not the newer population of the town that might be higher income. Every old-time Needhamite I speak to doesn't lock their car or their house. It's insane! They all think it's the 1950's and that crime doesn't happen here.

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

Yes! Sadly we had a president in the white house for four years that gave the people in this country the idea that it was OK to be mean and hateful to others. So incidents like these have become a lot more common. The whole country is in a bad place right now. Everyone is just so polarized and angry at everyone else.

This being said, in my personal opinion, Duxbury has had a number of them in the last few years and when you account for the difference in population size that makes it all the more meaningful to me. Not saying everyone in Duxbury is a Neo-Nazi or a member of the KKK. Just saying the town has had more than it's fair share of negative press in recent years and that would affect my personal decision about whether or not I would want to live there. Again, I'm just sharing one man's opinion.



Well put and I could agree more with you. High prices equate to high demand for that product and high demand equates to desirability. Desirability though is about how many people want something. Something may be great for you and awful for the majority of people. This doesn't make what you have bad just less desirable.



What's so bad about Natick? Everyone always thinks of the Natick Mall and RT9 when they think of Natick but there's a lot more to the town than just a short stretch of RT9. I'd be totally fine to live there.



Same! I remember Needham from growing up. It was a totally different place then. Lots of modest houses but a lot of them have been torn down now and replaced by new, significantly larger homes.



Again, things like this have become more common across our country in recent years. The difference here is this was a single incident by a stupid kid most likely. He probably learned that stupidity at home from a hateful parent. Also, again, my take is that Duxbury has had a lot more negative press (especially adjusted for population size) in recent years than other towns. For all I know, Duxbury is a Utopia. However, the negative press turns me off of the idea of living there. Perception is reality.



Yup. All of those towns are seeing a lot of proposals for building housing projects with affordable units. Tons of NIMBY-ism as one might imagine holding up those projects but the proposals keep coming anyway.

People love to whine and cry every time a new development is proposed . . . there will be so much traffic!!! It will forever alter the character of the town!!!! We don't have the infrastructure to handle the additional population!!!!



I'd bet dimes to donuts that the victims of these crimes are in fact long time Needham residents with more modest incomes and not the newer population of the town that might be higher income. Every old-time Needhamite I speak to doesn't lock their car or their house. It's insane! They all think it's the 1950's and that crime doesn't happen here.

That makes it even worse...retirees probably just trying to enjoy their golden years in their town trying to remember it as it once was will now forever be shaken.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

What's so bad about Natick? Everyone always thinks of the Natick Mall and RT9 when they think of Natick but there's a lot more to the town than just a short stretch of RT9. I'd be totally fine to live there.

Nothing bad about it, just that nothing is really "great" about it either. Certainly (other than location which of course is HUGE), nothing there to warrant a $900K median home price putting it among the more expensive towns in the state (it's almost up there with Medfield and Sherborn!) Here is an example of a town I NEVER would have held in as high prestige as Deluxebury, but like we say so many things have changed.

[matrix5k]

Is Winchester a W town?

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by matrix5k

Is Winchester a W town?

I'd say yes

[msRB311]

Arlington is also a town that used to be very middle class and that place has also exploded due to its location